There are many other comment regarding the w3c's position on RAND
patents. That being the case I must add my comments to all the others
object to this change in the w3c's patent policy.
I would be the first to agree that the w3c is slow to bring out
standards, but this is certainly the fastest policy change proposal to
policy change that I have seen the w3c make.
Although the time for making good standard can be a long and irritating
process, at least it is an open process that attempts to provide a
standards mechanism that doesn't exclude individuals or specific
subsection of the industry. After all the earliest standard, defacto or
not, is not necessarily the best standard.
There is no such thing as a RAND patent that is not exclusionary. It
will automatically exclude the free software community who hold some of
the only groups to actually produce standards and build standards
complient software.
Is the w3c out of ideas, deaf or simply bought?
Marc d'Entremont